Saksies
Overview Saksies is a Germanic conlang closely related to the modern Germanic languages, Dutch, German, Afrikaans, Luxembourgish and has a lot in common with the English language as well. Saksies has a fair amount of French loanwords. Grammar The Saksies grammar is relatively simple compared with German or Dutch and resembles more the modern English or Afrikaans grammar. Phonology The Saksies vowel system consists of 12 vowel sounds: 8 simple vowels a, e, è, ë, i, ie, o, u; 4 diphthongs: au, ei, éi and y. The vowels a, e, o and u can be either long or short.' The Saksies consonant inventory consists of 20 sounds of which x has no graphem of its own but is marked by ch or g''' and ʦ can be written either as '''z or tz (z is used after consonants, tz after vowels,'' the sound occurs usually only word-finally''). S''' is pronounced z word-initially and between vowels. Word-finally, '''b, d''' and '''g are pronounced p, t and x. Vowels Consonants *The presented pronunciation of ch '''and '''z/tz is the standard, dialectal variation is great. Often they are simplified to ʃ and t. *'R' r is often realised as the uvular trill ʀ. *French words are mostly spelt and pronounced as in French. Nevertheless, they are usually declined as indigenous words: Ech gonn changéiren de billeten. (I go change the tickets.) gon: ʃãnʒeirən də bije:ən Nouns There are no genders in Saksies. The indefinite article is e''''' /ə/ (emphatic form: een'' /e:n/ and the definite article is ''de'' /də/ (emphatic form:'' die'' /di:/). When the proceeding word begins with a vowel an -n is inserted at the end of the article e > 'en '/ən/, de > 'den '/dən/. This may be ignored in colloquial usage. Plural is formed by adding the suffix -('''e)n''' /(ə)n/. '''Irregular Plurals Articles Articles were historically inflected. The genitive lives on in some names and fixed expression but less so in everyday language e.g. champion '''der '''wereld 'world champion'. Diminutive The diminutives are formed by adding the suffix -'lien'. mannlien '''the little man' ''susterlien '''beloved sister, little sister' ''hundlien '''the little dog, puppy' ''dei handlienen '''your little hands' Adjectives & Adverbs There is a number of real adverbs, any adjective in indefinite form can be used as an adverb. Adjectives have two forms: indefinite and definite. Derived Adjectives '''Heemesche Suffiksen' Fremde Suffiksen Degrees of Comparision Note the spelling! Heet > heter > (de) heetst(e) hot, hotter (the) hottest Flakk > flakker > (de) flakst(e) flat, flatter, (the) flattest Note! The adjective gudd is declined irregularly: gudd > besser > best Numbers Pronouns Personal Pronouns The forms mein, dein and sein are used when the proceeding word begins with a vowel e.g. mein auto. Interrogatives Wer 'bëstu? ''Who are you? 'Wen '''so du in de Staad? ''Whom did you see in the city? 'Wem '''gaaf du de bicher? ''To whom did you give the books? 'Wessen '''velo is dies? ''Whose bicycle is this? 'Wat '''is dei naam? ''What is your name? '''Wat for e haus wëllen ier kopen? What kind of a house do you want to buy? Welche 'teidskriften lees du? ''Which magazines do you read? 'Wenn '''komm du weer bei ons? ''When will you come and visit us again? 'Weer '''sinn ier? ''Where are you? 'Wie '''aud bëstu? ''How old are you? 'Wéi '''bëstu net gekommen? ''Why didn't you come? '''Words Derived from Proto-Germanic *se/þe, *hwa and *he Verbs 'Infinite Verb Forms' pref. = prefixed verb, doesn't get ge- prefix in Past Participle mpre. = moving prefix, note the position of prefix -ge- irr. = irregular or strong verb The Infinitive '''ends in -en (except for a few irregular verbs in -nn). It may be used as a substantive e.g. ''Werken is hard. 'It's hard to work. The Present Participle is derived from the infinitive stem with the suffix -end. It is usually used as an adjective and declined accordingly e.g. Ech so e jagend wolf. 'I saw a hunting wolf.' The Past Participle is used to form perfect and pluperfect tenses and as an adjective e.g. Ech hunn de hele dag gewerkt. 'I have worked all day long.', De gejaagte dier. 'The hunted animal.' 'Finite Verb Forms' The first one is the singular form e.g.' ech bell ''I ring' and the second one is used for plural méi bellen 'we ring'. In brief, the present tense for regular verbs in singular is formed by removing the infinitive ending -'en'. The plural form is identical with the infinitive.'' E.g. Ech/Du/Hien werk but: méi/ier/hin werken.'' Spelling is adjusted in order to keep the long vowels long and the short ones short e.g. dragen dra:gən 'to drag/to carry': Ech draag dra:x, méi dragen dra:gən. Endings -'s' (Singular 2nd person) and -'t '(singular 3rd person) may occur in dialects (ech werk, du werks, hien werkt, méi/ier/hin werken). To form the regular past tense, the suffix -te (or -ten in plural) is added to the present tense singular form e.g.'' Ech werkte/draagte 'I worked/carried', Méi werkten/draagten 'We worked/carried' . Only 4 verbs have personal inflection apart from singular/plural distinction in Present Tense: 'Strong Verbs' Strong verbs have 3 main groups: I ei-ie-ie Group: beissen - biessen - gebiessen to bite II ie-o-o Group: fl'ie'gen - fl'oo'g - gefl'o'gen 'to fly' III ë-a-u Group: beg'ë'nnen - beg'a'nn/en - beg'u'nnen 'to begin' IV The 4th Group includes 16 irregular verbs that do not fall into any of the preceding groups e.g. mogen (maag/mogen) - mochte/n - gemogen 'to like''' Group I Verbs: Most of the verbs with -ei-. Group II Verbs: biegen '''to bend '''bieden '''to offer '''ferlieren '''to lose '''fliegen '''to fly '''flieën '''to flee '''fliessen '''to flow '''geniessen '''to enjoy '''giessen '''to pour '''riechen '''to smell '''schiefen '''to shove '''schiessen '''to shoot '''schliessen '''to close '''sieën '''to see '''spriesen '''to sprout '''Group II Verbs: begënnen '''to begin '''bërsten '''to burst bënden to bind '''drënken '''to drink '''ferschwënden '''to disappear '''fënden '''to find '''gelëngen '''to succeed '''gewënnen '''to win '''klëngen '''to sound '''rëngen '''to ring '''rënnen '''to run '''schwëmmen '''to swim '''sëngen '''to sing '''sënken '''to sink '''sprëngen '''to jump '''Group IV Verbs: 'Modal Verbs' Also gonn 'to go, going to' and bleiven 'to stay, to keep' can be treated as modal verbs. Negative The negation net (also: na, niet) is used with verbs e.g.'' Ech wëll net kommen. I don't want to come.'' Prepositions Word Origins Indigenous Germanic Words: ech, werken, denken, hand, kopp... Loanwords from French: velo, merci, trois-pièce, ménage, parfum, flânéiren, amuséiren... Loanwords from German: Loanwords from English: schéiven, schéiken, méilen... Category:Languages Category:Germanic conlangs